Section 17 Notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

WITHHOLDING INFORMATION

Section 40(2) – Personal Data Relating To Third Parties

Some of the information you have requested contains sensitive personal data. The sensitive personal data consists of personal data relating to the reasons given for Non-Disclosure Agreements being agreed. Personal data can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the data protection principles. The first principle states:

*Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless—*

(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and

(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.

We believe releasing the requested information into the public domain would cause damage and distress to the individuals in this case; all individuals have a clear and strong expectation that their personal data will be held in confidence and not disclosed to the public under the FOI Act. This is especially true of sensitive personal data as it comprises information that individuals will regard as the most private.

Disclosure would therefore breach the first data protection principle as it would be unfair. We do not have to consider schedules 2 and 3.

Further information on the data protection principles is available as follows:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/1 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/2 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/3